A kilo of cocaine is definitely not what you’d expect to find on a morning walk on the beach. But it wouldn’t be the first nor the last time someone has ran across significant remnants of the drug trade and officials are seeing an increase in such packages washing up on Texas shores.
According to the Houston Chronicle, tightened border security may have something to do with the jump in smuggling by water. While it isn’t clear why the drugs didn’t make it to their final destination, the result has been a wide variety of interesting packages just showing up on the sand.
South Padre Island saw about 800 pounds of marijuana in one single incident. In Jefferson County and on High Island, recoveries of about 24 kilograms of cocaine occurred. One woman walking the beach in May near Galveston found a black bag containing 37 pounds of cocaine.
Most people comb the beaches looking for ship wreck remnants, pretty shells, or shark teeth. Few expect to find their million dollar treasure in the form of illegal drugs.
According to the Chronicle, trafficking drugs by water is notoriously difficult for officials to put a stop to. The Central and South American to Florida cocaine operations of the eighties and nineties went down in pop culture history, covered by movies and television shows like Miami Vice.
It’s believed these more recent Texas instances are more likely to be from Mexico. Officials have posted signs along beaches warning the typical beachgoers of the possibility of traffickers crossing their paths, though there haven’t been many encounters reported.
Trafficking drugs in this manner, from country to country, is a very serious crime. However, selling it from one neighborhood to the next is as well. For distributing even a small amount of cocaine you could spend years behind bars.
You don’t have to be a kingpin with access to speedboats to face a lengthy prison stint for trafficking drugs. Even for selling more than 4 grams you could face first degree felony charges and spend the remainder of your life in prison.
If this is your first drug charge ever and it doesn’t involve multiple pounds of drugs, there’s a chance you could get off without going to prison. It all depends on the specific circumstances of your case. Contact me today to discuss what your charges mean and what the potential penalties are.
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